‘Penalty to Rangers’ is the wisecrack that has been trotted out over the last few years.
Confirmation bias means that every time Gers are given a penalty, people automatically say ‘here we go again’.
There is evidence across even just the last few weeks to suggest there is no bias towards Rangers in recent weeks.
The most high-profile would be the denial of a penalty vs Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup final when Vaclav Cerny was pulled back inside the box.
There was massive fallout after that one and the SFA ended up admitting a mistake was made.
Philippe Clement was left furious at the penalty Hibs were awarded during the Easter Road draw recently and marched into the referee’s room to have it out.
And Sky Sports backed the Rangers boss up as pundits were left ‘puzzled’ by the decision.
That hasn’t stopped others coming out with the ‘penalty to Rangers’ patter, including clubs themselves.
Hibs faced potential SFA action over a controversial tweet when the Light Blues were awarded a spot kick against them.
At a similar time last season, the penalty stats of Celtic and Rangers compared proved the conspiracy theories to be false…and that seems to be the case again.
McCoist in Celtic penalties dig
Celtic were able to bail themselves out against Dundee last night and rescue a late draw when Arne Engels buried the stoppage time penalty they were awarded.
It was the fifth penalty the £11million man has scored this season while Adam Idah has tucked away one.
McCoist made a joke of it but had a serious point at the heart of it.
He said on talkSPORT: “In two games at home they got a draw with Celtic and a draw with Rangers you have to say that’s very good. Credit where it’s due.
“I couldn’t believe it. Celtic got a penalty in the 95th minute. That doesn’t happen very often, does it?
“Me and the wee man were coming home from Chelsea and he says, ‘How long to go at Dundee?’ and I said, ‘It’s 92 minutes’.
“He said, ‘It will be two minutes to the penalty’ and he got it spot on, to be fair. Spot on.”
Celtic vs Rangers penalty stats
Rangers are the only Scottish Premiership club to NOT have been awarded a penalty this season.
For a team that dominates the vast majority of games and is in the opposition box more than most, that comes as a surprise.
Hibs have benefited the most from spot kicks with a grand total of seven while Celtic have had five, scoring them all.
Penalty to Rangers, eh?
